Tuesday, 26 July 2011

I'll be honest here, at first I wasn't convinced that this was official Hummel. I didn't even know if Martinique even plaedy in official Hummel. The Guadeloupe shirts that I bought from the same store are authentic so it was a tough one to call.

EDIT: Okay, interesting development. Maillot Antilles Foot have got in contact with me and shown me the certificate from the Martinique based suppliers saying that they are official Hummel. The Suppliers website looks very professional and claims to have "acquired the license for distribution and manufacturing of exclusive Danish brand Hummel.".

Furthermore, and most importantly Hummel International today posted on their twitter account: "Tuesday Trivia: did you know that hummel sponsors 'Les Matinino' - the national football team of Martinique? http://fb.me/A3JM9BWP".

So there you go, Official Martinique shirts! Thanks Curtis for taking the time to help clear things up.

I'll be honest here, I'm not convinced that this is official Hummel. However, I don't know if Martinique even play in official Hummel. The Guadeloupe shirts that I bought from the same store are authentic so it's a tough one to call.

EDIT: Okay, interesting development. Maillot Antilles Foot have got in contact with me and shown me the certificate from the Martinique based suppliers saying that they are official Hummel. The Suppliers website looks very professional and claims to have "acquired the license for distribution and manufacturing of exclusive Danish brand Hummel.".

Furthermore, and most importantly Hummel International today posted on their twitter account: "Tuesday Trivia: did you know that hummel sponsors 'Les Matinino' - the national football team of Martinique? http://fb.me/A3JM9BWP".

So there you go, Official Martinique shirts! Thanks Curtis for taking the time to help clear things up.

Guadeloupe is a French overseas territory in the Caribbean, and as such it is also part of the Euro zone (along with other French overseas territories such as Reunion, Martinique and Mayotte). The islands have a population about the size of Manchester, and although they are not FIFA members, they are members of the CONCACAF and have been successful in recent tournaments losing to Jamaica on penalties in the Final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Football politics is fairly complex when it comes to Guadeloupe. All Guadeloupeans are elegible to play for France since they are French citizens. As a special rule for the Gold Cup Guadeloupeans are allowed to join the team on the condition that they haven't played for France in the past 5 years. In theory Thierry Henry could well make his Guadeloupe debut in a few years time.

Monday, 25 July 2011

Okay, so St Vincent & the Grenadines is (are?) a small group of islands in the southern part of the Caribbean known as the Lesser Antilles with a population a similar size to Peterborough. They gained independence from the UK in 1979, but didn' joined FIFA untill 1988. I do love caribbean namesTheir Prime Minister is called Ralph and their national team includes Cornelius, Wendall, Emerald, Reginald, and confusingly 'Kenyan' who is not a Kenyan, he is of course Vincentian.

I've tried to find a famous Vincentian, bu am really struggling. The best that I can come up with is Kevin Lyttle who released this tune in 2004. Second in my list is Tony Nero, the father of one of my students, he's an artist based in Peterborough who specialises in portraits of Black heroes. Finally Rodney Jack, the former Torquy United an Crewe Alexandra player.

The national team itself hasn't exactly set the footballing world on fire, but nor should we expect it to given its population of just 120,000. It has however achieved a respectable 73rd in the FIFA world rankings as recently as October 2007 following their appearance in the final round of the Caribbean Cup, a competition that they were runners up for in 1995. Back on the islands the national team are known as the Vincy Heat.

St Vincent and the Grenadines - Home - 2004

I really thought that thi shirt wuld be a little bit easier to find. They have plenty of links wth the UK, and are even advertising an e-shop on the national association website.

I eventually found this shirt, signed by theafore mentioned Rodney Jack on eBay. I somehow manged to get this for a bargain £42.